pgapeuro - The History of the Chunnel

The Chunnel
The Channel Tunnel, or Chunnel as it is more commonly known, is the underwater railroad connecting England to France amd Brussels. Operating by 1994, it runs beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. The Eurostar is the name for the train that runs in the tunnel. The Channel Tunnel consists of interconnecting tubes: railtracks each way and service tunnels. The length of this revolutionary transportation system is a total of 31 miles, of which 23 are underwater at an average of 150 feet deep. It is the second longest undersea tunnel in the world.

The Chunnel

Foundations: a brief outline

First suggested by Napoleon in 1802
Initiated by President Mitterand of France and Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1988
Took $15 billion and six years to begin the operation of the chunnel: 3 of which consisted of hollowing the tunnel out
Excavated by tunnel boring machines that cut away the rock and sand
First building of the chunnel consisted of three tunnels
Second section opened in 2007: expanded to 11 tunnels, and Great Britain's first high speed line was opened.

Service tunnel

Tunnel Boring Machine

The Chunnel Exhibit

Creating the Chunnel

Engineers were faced with a huge challenge when the idea of connecting England in France was first brought up. There were several tunnel calamities that had occured during this time, such as the Holland Tunnel disaster. The builders had to not only build a safe tunnel of this immense size, but also convince passengers of their safety. The engineer's resolution was to build the service tunnels. This design was put to the test a year after the Chunnel opened when over thirty people were trapped when a fire broke out. Everyone escaped safely through the service tunnel. The Chunnel was funded entirely by private finance.

The Channel Tunnel

The opening of the Chunnel - the celebrations

1994
President Mitterand and the Queen
Two eleborate ceremonies in Great Britain and France
Both Queen Elizabeth and President Mitterand arrived at Calais at the same time
Simultaneous national anthems were played while the red, white and blue ribbon was cut

The Eurostar

Eighteen carriage class 373 trains
High speed carriage trains
Travel at speeds up to 300 km/h
London to Paris in 2 hours and 15 minutes
HSL 1 cut speeds to Brussels
High Speed 1 cut speeds to Kent and Brussels by an average of 2o minutes
The Eurostar

The Main Stations:

Waterloo, London
Ashford International, Kent
Calais-Frethun, Calais
Lille Europe, Europe
Brussels-Midi/Zuid, Brussels
Gare du Nord, Paris

The Chunnel

Facts

Owned by the National railways of Belgium
Deemed one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers
At the time it was build, the Chunnel was the most expensive construction project
Some of the tunnel boring machines were the size of two football fields
There was competition between the British and French to reach the center of the tunnel first: the British won
In the first five years of operation, the trains carried 28 million people and 12 million tons of cargo

St. Pancras Station

It was one of the greatest techonological accomplishment of the era.
With ideas that spread over the course of two centuries, the planning and building of this structure had to maintain a broader perspective on idealistic concerns.
The 20th century is remembered for its architectural achievments. The Chunnel, along with The Bauhaus movement and the Louvre pyramid (modernism) are some of the most significant 20th century European developments. People can finally hop a train to London, see a play at The West End; also famous in this time, and be back in the same day, and for much cheaper than flying. The Chunnel remains one of the most astounding techonological developments of our time, and as it continues to seek improvments, will only become additionally advanced.

Eurostar official symbol